38PROFILEADAM SIMS
SENDING IT
PROFILE
INTERVIEW: WSUK
PICS: FLORIAN PEICHLER, MARTIN REITER, JESS BONDE, SAM SILLS & ALINA SHALIN
MANY WILL KNOW ADAM SIMS AS THE GLOBETROTTING FREESTYLER WITH A
PENCHANT FOR WAVES AND MAKING/PRESENTING VIDS FOR THE
EUROPEAN FREESTYLE PRO TOUR (AMONG OTHERS). Adam recently
suffered a horrendous spinal injury which he’s been slowly crawling back
from. Now fully powered up again and back on the water we caught up with
Simsy to find out more.
Firstly, tell us about what happened and how you sustained your injury?
Well the first time I noticed anything was after a big session at the end of a season in Cape Town. I’d
been there for nearly five months and in the last few days there was a huge forecast, we are talking
50 knots and 6m waves. To cut a long story short, Ben Proffitt actually captured the moment I came
in clutching my shoulder after a very high backloop crash. I figured it was just a shoulder pain but
later, after some agonizing hours flying home and then driving through Europe, I finally got a CT scan
on it and it turned out it was actually my neck. My disc between C6 and C7 was well out of place, it
completely closed off the route to my left arm for the nerves, which explained the crazy shoulder
pain and the progressive loss of feeling in my left hand. I was told that if it moved a millimetre more
I may not be walking again and I could begin to lose organ function.
Was there a feeling of impending doom and thoughts of not being able to
sail ever again in those initial moments following?
When it happened, no not at all, I thought it was just a shoulder issue. When I had the shoulder
scan I was still completely clueless to it. When I had the neck scan, that’s when it hit me. I had it
at the Bayern Munich Football Club. The doctor there said it was not good news and told me the
short of it. Then a specialist, a family friend of my girlfriend’s family, Dr Tanner, saw it and
explained it a lot more. We went through all the options but somehow I never thought I would not
sail again, for me that’s almost out the question, I know I’ll always find a way; wherever, whenever,
however. I think the only time I was afraid about what was to come was the moment before they
put me to sleep before the operation. I was suddenly super nervous, some 3-4 minutes later I was
flying high on some psychedelic trip, thanks to the disclosure of my nerves to the nurses.
uk
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SURFING